Homes badly damaged in Southern California storm

ASSOCIATED PRESS

August 5, 2014 12:01 AM

Andrew Watson and his daughter Taylor Becker dig out their car after rocks and mud inundated their home in the mountain community of Forest Falls in the San Bernardino Mountains Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Crews cleared roads in an area where some 2,500 had been stranded after thunderstorms caused mountain mudslides in Southern California over the weekend, while authorities estimated that between 6 and 8 homes were badly damaged and likely uninhabitable. One person was found dead in a vehicle that was caught in a flash flood. A group of campers spent the night at a community center near Forest Falls headed. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)AP

ASSOCIATED PRESS

August 5, 2014 12:01 AM

MOUNT BALDY, Calif. -- Crews cleared roads in an area where about 2,500 people had been stranded after thunderstorms caused mountain mudslides in Southern California, while authorities estimated Monday that more than 30 homes were badly damaged and about a dozen were likely uninhabitable.

Traffic resumed on some San Bernardino County roads that had been blocked by several feet of mud, rocks and debris near two rural communities.

A group of about 500 campers who spent the night at a community center near Forest Falls headed down from the mountains after the main road reopened. An artery into Oak Glen, where about 1,500 people were stranded, was also open again.

Up to eight homes near Forest Falls were "likely lost" and several others sustained minor damage from mud and water, Fire Capt. Jeff Britton said. At least 1,000 residents were unable to leave the area overnight.

Everyone in the two towns was accounted for and no injuries were reported, officials said.

To the west, a 48-year-old man died in a car that was swept into a rain-swollen creek near Mount Baldy. Coroner's officials identified him on Monday as Joo Hwan Lee of El Segundo.

Residents of Mount Baldy awoke Monday to sunny skies and mud-filled streets. They swapped stories between drying out carpets and shoveling dirt from in front of their homes.

"The stream was a raging black torrent of debris and big logs and muddy, silty water," said Michael Honer, who watched the flood build over an hour from a friend's house up the road. "It was apocalyptic."